[1] Bess of Hardwick remarried to Sir William St. Loe, who left his wife everything when he died in 1564/5, making her one of the most eligible women in England; a number of important men began to court her, including George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury.

[2] Lady St. Loe consented to give her hand and heart to the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury in consideration of his settling a large jointure on her, and marrying his second son, Gilbert Talbot, to her daughter, Mary Cavendish, and his daughter Grace to her son Henry Cavendish.

Their children were: In May 1573 Gilbert Talbot hired a "sober maiden" Margaret Butler who had been a servant of Nazareth Newton, Lady Southwell for his wife.

[4] In December 1603, Arbella Stuart discussed with Mary the issue of buying New Year's Day gifts for Anne of Denmark.

Mary refused to testify, saying she had sworn a binding oath not to, and was returned to the Tower, where she remained until 1623, occupying the best lodgings.

[14] Mary was not easily intimidated: Dorothy L. Sayers in her novel Gaudy Night described her as "uncontrollable by her menfolk, undaunted by the Tower, and contemptuously silent before the Privy Council".

The heroine Harriet Vane studies Lady Shrewsbury's portrait and wonders why the college had chosen "so ominous a patroness … a great intellectual certainly, but something of a holy terror".